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"Kids who grow up with parents who are college graduates probably have been on college campuses all their lives," McCurry says. "We want our kidsexposed to the same thing, to where being on a college campus Is almost ho-hum. It should be, 'Yeah, I'm going to be there one day.' "So Toll and McCurry told Klein thatthey needed $10,000 per pupil, access tofree facilities and no enrollment limits.Klein had an answer ready, too: Done. Lastfall, Achievement First opened CrownHeights Elementary and Middle Schooland East New York Elementary in Brook-lyn, with plans for two more schools thisfall and more by 2007.But despite the promise of Achieve-ment First's expansion into New York'sneediest areas, Toll isn't giving up on Con-necticut. While one-third of Amistad'seighth-graders receive admission and/orscholarships to some of New England'smost prestigious private high schools andanother third earn spots in the city's mag-net schools, the remaining graduates leaveAmistad's "whatever it takes" environmentonly to go back into New Haven SchoolDistrict high schools. That's a fact thatspurs Toll to exhibit her own eye-roll:"Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.""It's painfully mixed," says Toll of whatbecomes of those students. "Overall, the(When I was 14, if I suddenlydidn't have the supports I oncehad, I might have faltered, too.J.# think if they're with us through12th grade, we can dramaticallytreduce the number ojkids whofalierand dramatically increase the numberoj kids who are successful.'Doug McCurry ' 94pretty tough to shake. It's just a hugeheartache."level of academic expectation is far lower,and that's where your heart really breaks.You have the kids who still have the moti-vation and are trying to work hard, butwhat is expected of them is far less. Thepeer culture is also totally different, andsome of the kids are strong enough toswim against the tide. But some of them... they'll say, 'I'm not going to college.That's acting white.' I mean, it's all kinds ofracial and academic identities that areOn to high schoolWith an enrollment cap in Connecti-cut, however, Amistad has been unable toopen a high school to which its eighth-graders could progress -- until now. Toll isbanking on the charter law changing thisyear to accommodate more students,thanks to a bill in the state legislature thathas been pushed forward as a result ofAmistad's success (and New York's interestin Achievement First). The organizationplans to open the high school academy ofAchievement First's flagship school, as wellas an elementary school, this fall."Right now, they're 14 when theyleave us," says McCurry, who has seensome former students become teenagemothers and others fall into the "wrongcrowd." "When I was 14, if I suddenlydidn't have the supports I once had, Imight have faltered, too. We think ifthey're with us through 12th grade, we26S epI em ber 0 c lob er 2 0 0 6